Just as this thought came to her she heard a tap at her door. It was a messenger with a note. She told him to wait, and opened it. It was from Franks.
"I quite forgot when I saw you an hour ago to ask you to let me have manuscript of the next story without fail this evening. Can you send it now by messenger, or shall he call again for it within a couple of hours? This is urgent.
"Thomas Franks."
Florence sat down and wrote a brief reply.
"I am very sorry, but you cannot have manuscript to-night.
"Florence Aylmer."
The messenger departed with this note, and Florence dressed herself to go out, and she went quickly downstairs. She walked until she saw the special omnibus which she was looking for. She was taken straight to Hampstead, and she walked up the steep hill until she found the little cottage which she had visited months ago in the late summer-time. Florence went to the door, and a neat servant with an apple-blossom face opened it.
"Is Mrs. Trevor in?" asked Florence.
"Yes, miss; what name shall I say?"
Florence gave her name: "Miss Florence Aylmer."